Central Alberta man jailed for assault on police, drugs

A Central Alberta man has asked to be taken as far away from Red Deer as practical after pleading guilty in Red Deer provincial court on Tuesday to assaulting police officers and numerous counts of possessing drugs for trafficking.

Aaron James Olson, 31, was sentenced to four years and 10 months, minus credit for time served, after pleading guilty to two sets of drugs charges as well as charges that he assaulted police while attempting to avoid arrest.

Calgary-based Judge Judy Shriar accepted a sentence recommendation by defence counsel Will Willms and Crown prosecutors Wayne Silliker and Dave Inglis, including a request that Olson serve his sentence outside Alberta and preferable in B.C.

Willms said the request was based on his client’s desire to be moved away from local influences that have lured him into the drug world he has been trying to escape. Terms of an earlier release had included a condition banning him from entering Red Deer city limits, said Willms. However, that condition was breached when Olson was found back in Red Deer and still involved in the drug business.

Inglis said Olson was arrested on June 5, 2013 by undercover members of the Red Deer RCMP Street Team, who found him in possession of 13 grams of crack cocaine, three grams of methamphetamine and 48 oxycodone pills along with $1,138 in cash.

The cash discovered in the search included $100 of the $200 undercover investigators had used to buy drugs from a dealer who had taken them to a mall parking lot to connect with her suppliers.

Released on a recognizance, Olson was arrested again on Jan. 30 of this year by police called to investigate a domestic assault. The two officers sent to investigate found him sitting in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck outside of his father’s house. They were standing beside the open door of the truck when Olson put it into reverse and accelerated, striking them both. While neither officer was hurt, there was potential for serious injury to both, said Silliker.

Olson was also charged with breaching release conditions.

Further drug charges were laid on Feb. 15 when Olson was arrested on outstanding warrants.

A search of his backpack uncovered a plastic bag full of smaller bags containing a variety of drugs, including 48 grams of powder cocaine, 61.8 grams of crack cocaine and 53.2 grams of methamphetamine, said Inglis.

He and Silliker advised Shriar that a large number of the charges against Olson would be withdrawn upon the court’s acceptance of guilty pleas.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of possession for trafficking, one count of possessing the proceeds of crime and two counts of breaching release conditions. At the request of Crown and defence, Shriar gave him five months credit for the five months he has served in remand, with four years and five months remaining on his sentence.

She ordered that he provide a sample of his DNA for the national database, banned him for 10 years from owning firearms, weapons and explosives and recommended that he serve his time in B.C.